accessibility statement

We are committed to ensuring that our website is accessible to everyone. If you have any questions or suggestions regarding the accessibility of this site, please use our contact form, as we are continually striving to improve the experience for all of our visitors.

We are currently in the process of building upgrading our website, and our aims for accessibility are outlined below. We have not yet got there with all of them, but we are on the way.

Standards compliance

  1. All pages on this site follow U.S. Federal Government Section 508 Guidelines.
  2. All pages on this site follow priorities 1 & 2 guidelines of the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
  3. All pages on this site validate as HTML XHTML-MP (Mobile Profile).
  4. All pages on this site use structured semantic markup. H1 tags are used for main titles, H2 tags for subtitles. For example, on this page, JAWS users can skip to the next section within the accessibility statement by pressing ALT+INSERT+2. Opera users can skip sections by using "S" and "W" to cycle forwards and backwards respectively through headings.

Structural Markup

Web pages on www.intermorphic.com include 4 different areas:

  1. A header bar that includes the main navigation,
  2. A main content area with breadcrumb,
  3. A "side bar",
  4. A footer.

When CSS (Cascading Styles Sheet) are not applied to a document (or when using a screen reader), the 4 areas are read in the above order.

Access Keys

This site uses the accesskey attribute. Most browsers support jumping to specific links by typing keys defined on the web site. On Windows, you can press ALT + an access key; on Macintosh, you can press Control + an access key. Different browsers also have variations on this.

Note: Access keys can often clash with keys set aside for use with other UAs (i.e. assistive technology).

Note: Internet Explorer requires you to press ALT + an access key + Enter to access linked documents.

Images

  1. Unless they are purely decorative items, all images used on this web site have suitable alt attributes.
  2. Content should be usable/accessible with images "off" (disabled).

Links

  1. Many links have title attributes which describe the link in greater detail, unless the text of the link already fully describes the target.
  2. Links are written to make sense out of context.
  3. The first link in every document is a "SkipNav"; it is to skip directly to what is considered the main section of the page (the content). We have implemented this feature in a way that it allows Internet Explorer users to tab through (past that target link).
  4. URLs are permanent whenever possible.

Scripts

  1. We currently do not use scripts, so content of this web site is usable without JavaScript support.

Pop up Windows

  1. In general we do not use pop up windows. Where we do, we will first notify you.

Visual design

  1. This site uses cascading style sheets for visual layout.
  2. This site uses only relative font sizes, compatible with the user-specified "text size" option in visual browsers.
  3. If your browser or browsing device does not support stylesheets at all, the content of each page is still readable.
  4. Any information conveyed through the use of color is also available without color (i.e. text based).

How to modify this site to fit your needs

These links explain the many ways you can make the web more accessible to you.

Accessibility references

  1. W3 accessibility guidelines, which explains the reasons behind each guideline.
  2. W3 accessibility techniques, which explains how to implement each guideline.
  3. W3 accessibility checklist, a busy developer's guide to accessibility.
  4. U.S. Federal Government Section 508 accessibility guidelines.

Accessibility software

  1. JAWS, a screen reader for Windows. A time-limited, downloadable demo is available.
  2. Home Page Reader, a screen reader for Windows. A downloadable demo is available.
  3. Lynx, a free text-only web browser for blind users with refreshable Braille displays.
  4. Links, a free text-only web browser for visual users with low bandwidth.
  5. Opera, a visual browser with many accessibility-related features, including text zooming, user stylesheets, image toggle. A free downloadable version is available. Compatible with Windows, Macintosh, Linux, and several other operating systems.

Accessibility services

  1. HTML Validator, a free service for checking that web pages conform to published HTML standards.
  2. Web Page Backward Compatibility Viewer, a tool for viewing your web pages without a variety of modern browser features.
  3. Lynx Viewer, a free service for viewing what your web pages would look like in Lynx.

Related resources

  1. WebAIM, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving accessibility to online learning materials.
  2. Designing More Usable Web Sites, a large list of additional resources.
  3. Thanks to TJK Design for their accessibily boilerplate, which we had used as the basis for our own.